


i couldn’t hurt you too

by rubbercip



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmare, i think, jaune is a good team leader, not canon, ren has a nightmare, talkin abt Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:20:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22570864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubbercip/pseuds/rubbercip
Summary: ren has a nightmare. nora would kill neo if given the chance
Relationships: Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie
Comments: 3
Kudos: 73





	i couldn’t hurt you too

**Author's Note:**

> i have had this in my brain for Days it’s past 3am hope this is coherent

They hadn’t gotten a chance to rest yet. 

Between getting away from the Atlesian military and defeating Salem and her accomplices, the teams hadn’t gotten proper rest in days, maybe even weeks. They ate and rested when they could, but that was the extent of it; they fought until they won, ultimately giving up all their energy to do so. But they’d won, so they couldn’t have cared less.

After everything was said and done, everyone needed to rest for a bit before they could begin their new jobs as huntsman and huntresses. Qrow decided to stay in Mantle, helping out Robyn in her attempts to keep the city running while Maria and Pietro held up the clinic. Team RWBY plus Penny headed back to Patch to rest up under Taiyang’s watch, and Oscar, for the time being, was back on the farm visiting his family. When Ren and Nora realized they didn’t quite have anywhere to go yet, Jaune and his sister were happy to house them until they went out for their next missions; Jaune wasn’t quite ready to part ways with his teammates, anyway.

Their first night home, team JNR was fed a full meal, courtesy Terra and Saphron. Knowing it was their first night in a home setting after a long, grueling battle, the women didn’t push too hard for conversation. They kept things light, and they were kind as they explained all the places they could sleep tonight. Jaune ended up letting Ren and Nora have the guest room, and he took an air mattress in Adrian’s room so he could get a chance to play with the kid a bit more.

Ren and Nora talked a bit as they got ready for bed, still exhausted after today but being comfortable enough to make easy conversation. Nora was especially infatuated with their new pjs, which were a combination of Jaune’s old ones and some hand-me-downs from Saphron; she’d gotten a band tee from some band she’d never heard of (and chose not to wear the pants), while Ren got some sweats and an old Haven academy shirt. She talked about it as she carefully braided through his wet hair, then went on to talk about how she liked Jaune’s family. He could only humbly agree that they were kind, loving, just as their leader was to them.

But finally, they slid into their own respective sides of the bed, deciding it was time for bed. They had deeper discussions they needed to have, but for now, they needed to get a good night's sleep.

That’s not what came to Ren, though.

He’d been having nightmares since he was little. About his parents, the Nuckelavee, Salem, and a bunch of other shit, but more often than not, the nightmares that struck fear straight into his bones were the ones that involved Nora. After losing so many other things in his life, Nora had become his constant; she was his rock, his other half. He couldn’t quite voice that in as strong of words, but they both knew what they were for each other. That’s why when night fell and Ren tried to sleep, his fears of losing her often creeped into his mind.

But this one wasn’t necessarily about losing her. Tonight, his mind wandered to what happened in the halls of Atlas academy. Seeing Neo as Nora. In this nightmare he remembered fighting her, how fucking terrible he felt seeing the hurt in her eyes (that weren’t hers) as he went for a hit. The only thing that made it worse was that in this dream, she spoke.

“Ren…?” She asked, voice confused and eyes wide as she looked up at him. And in this moment, time froze. Ren was faced with the girl he’d been with through it all, his lifelong partner, the one he put his life on the line for every waking moment he had to, and he was going to hurt her. He could feel his heart breaking all over again as the thought started to swallow him whole. He was hurting her- but was it her?- but it didn’t matter, he was hurting her, he was hurting her-

The scene faded in an instant as he shot up from his sleep, gasping as he looked around the room to gauge where he was. It took him a moment to remember. The moon provided just enough light that he could see in the small guest room; their stuff was in a pile on the floor, the book he’d borrowed from Terra was on the nightstand, and Nora was still next to him, though she was awake now as well.

Her eyes blinked open slowly, waking up to see Ren sat up, panting with tears streaming down his face. She felt almost all of her sleepy haze wash away immediately. “Ren?” She asked, voice quiet as she sat up too, a hand immediately going to try to find his in some hope to ground him. Nora wasn’t exactly sure what to ask next, but she finally settled on “Did something happen?”

“It… it wasn’t real,” he responded, mostly just telling himself that. He repeated the simple phrase a few times to himself under his breath, letting himself calm down before he let out a heavy sigh. When he felt settled enough, he turned to face Nora, but upon seeing those soft eyes again, seeming to shimmer with concern the same way Neo’s did back in his dream, he felt his face drop as his walls began to break down again. Ren didn’t try to stop the tears once they started to come again.

Nora scooted over close to him, sliding her hand out of his so she could hug him tightly, almost positive he hadn’t had a breakdown like this in years but still feeling her muscle memory kick in. She held him close, a hand rubbing his back as Ren clung to her. One of his hands held the back of her head as his other arm just held her impossibly close. This is where they sat for several minutes, Ren waiting to speak until he was almost positive he could speak without crying again.

“I-... I’m sorry,” he started off, “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Nora began to play with his hair gently as she answered him, “Don’t be sorry, I’d rather you wake me up than go through this alone; you know that.” 

At this, Ren could only sigh. “I know… it was… just another nightmare.” Nora gave him a soft ‘oh’ before he began to speak again; he trusted her with everything, and he wanted her to know what was on his mind, what happened that night.

“That… that night we fought Neo. Back at Atlas. She’d… she’d shapeshifted into you; I-I had to fight you. She… sh-she made me think I was… th-that I was…” he trailed off, hugging her tightly before he loosened his hold a bit, “I haven’t been able to sleep well since… everything with Salem. But that… th-that was the worst part of all this. They used you against me, a-and I… I-I couldn’t do it.”

Nora listened, and she took in all the information. She knew that Ren would never hurt her- the thought would’ve never crossed her mind that he’d even consider- but hearing that he Neo had fucked with his mind like that made her shiver softly. She rubbed back gently for a bit more before she pulled away, looking up into his eyes.

“She’s not here anymore,” she said, beginning to cup his face with her hand to wipe his tears away, “She can’t hurt you anymore. And I… I know you’d never hurt me, Ren. We’re ok now.”

Ren found himself leaning into the touch, letting her hold him for a moment before he took her wrist, moving her hand so he could place a gently kiss on it. Looking into her eyes, he placed another one on one of her knuckles. “I… I just don’t want to hurt you.” 

Nora felt her heart swell a bit, not used to this sort of intimacy from her partner. She didn’t wanna squander the moment, so she leaned in, pressing a kiss of her own to his forehead.

“Lie… you won’t. You never have, and I doubt you ever will,” she told him, “I know she put that thought into your head, but no matter what they did, I’ll always be here with you, ok?”

Ren gave a soft ‘ok’, and both of them leaned in, sharing a soft, loving kiss before they began to lay back down. “You’re lucky I love you, you taste like morning breath,” Nora commented, making both of them chuckle a little as they got comfortable once more. This time as they laid down, Ren was curled up against Nora’s back, arms around her torso protectively. She was practically a human furnace, so he surprisingly had almost no problem beginning to doze off again.

“I love you too.”


End file.
